


The Sheffield ladies talk.

by xtenn



Series: The Viscount Who Sure As Hell Didn't Deserve Kate [4]
Category: Bridgerton (TV), Bridgerton Series - Julia Quinn
Genre: Mother-Daughter Relationship, Sisters, Talking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:21:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29073243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xtenn/pseuds/xtenn
Summary: What would Mary have said to Kate - and what would Kate have said to Edwina - after the bee sting?All credit and thanks to Ms Quinn for her amazing characters and stories.Note this work references obliquely an unhappy marriage and domestic violence. Please take care of yourself. xx
Relationships: Anthony Bridgerton/Kate Sheffield, Edwina Sheffield & Kate Sheffield, Mary Sheffield & Kate Sheffield
Series: The Viscount Who Sure As Hell Didn't Deserve Kate [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129715
Comments: 11
Kudos: 86





	The Sheffield ladies talk.

"Oh my darling girl, my darling ..." Mary whispered frantically. "Please forgive me, I am so sorry."

"Mary," Kate hissed, "it's fine - I'm quite well, but I couldn't think of any other way out of there!"

"You were so brave. The Bridgertons are good people - they'll keep this quiet for you, so you have no need to fear a marriage to that man," Mary spat these last words out bitterly. "You warned me, Kate, and I was blinded - by his money, his power, and for what, a few flowers for Edwina? Oh my darling girl, I'm so sorry ..."

Kate took a deep breath and tried not to roll her eyes. "Mary, focus. When we get to the house, I'm unwell - take me straight to our room, and demand a doctor. Remember, Anthony was the hero here."

Mary nodded grimly, and added with a small smile, "Don't forget to play your part, dear - do you think you could manage a swoon?"

\-------------

The doctor came - a charmingly rotund man, with extraordinarily large whiskers, and the good fortune of a booming voice. The Sheffield ladies heard his pronouncements as he headed back to the drawing room of Kate's narrow escape from death, due to the timely extraction of the venom by the quick thinking and valiant actions of the Lord of the Manor. Edwina finally burst into giggles of relief at these dramatics, causing Kate to throw her pillow at her from where she was propped up like an invalid in her bed.

"Oh come now, Kate," Edwina smiled. "You really are quite well - surely this is a bit humorous!"

Mary paled, her face grim. "It most certainly is not humorous. To think, that man dared to enter our house, to court you, Edwina ... and now Kate could have been forced into a marriage to him - could still be ..." Mary trailed off, her rage making her incoherent and flustered, as she moved through the room needlessly picking up and putting down articles of clothing, in some semblance of completely unnecessary tidying.

"A marriage to a good looking viscount surely isn't the worst outcome of a bee sting, Mother," Edwina replied cheekily. "Particularly not one who so clearly favours our ..."

"He does not, Ed," Kate interrupted. "He's courting you!"

"Oh yes he does," Edwina rejoined. "All I have with Lord Bridgerton is polite conversation about the weather and silence! He could barely even tell me what he studied at university! Whereas you ... "

Kate glared at Edwina, in the silent language of siblings when their parents are present. Edwina nodded imperceptibly with a sly grin and a raised eyebrow - she was certain she would get more details later, when Mary was asleep. Kate continued the silent conversation by lifting her eyebrow in Mary's direction, and the two sisters watched as their mother continued to fluster around the room. Edwina shrugged lightly, to indicate she also didn't know.

"Mary," Kate began. "Are you quite well?" 

"Yes dears, of course," Mary started to say, folding a shawl for the third time, moving it from a chair to a table and then over the chest, in indecision. "Although, perhaps ... girls, please take a seat."

Edwina and Kate's eyes met swiftly in concern and curiosity, as they waited for Mary to continue.

"Dear me, Mama, what on earth is this about?" Edwina said. 

"When I married - for the first time, not to your Father - I knew nothing of what to expect in the marriage bed. It was not - " She closed her eyes briefly, and took a deep breath. "I am getting ahead of myself. What I mean to say, is that I had been told, as all young women rightly are, to keep gentlemen at arm's reach - for we are too tempting, and they simply cannot help themselves, to take their pleasure, unless we are guarded with our virtue. Once that is lost, it is lost forever. Once married, however, we have a duty to fulfil, and in our marriage bed, any pleasure we may have depends entirely upon our husbands - it is by no means certain - although of course dear girls, it can and should absolutely be a pleasure to you, too."

Edwina and Kate were entranced - never before had Mary been so frank about the marital act, and until this moment, they had heard almost nothing of the experience. That said, her words were vague to the point of meaninglessness. Kate thought of the stallion mounting the mare, and the horse's scream - the brutality of the flailing hooves and the bared teeth, and its abrupt conclusion, and tried to reconcile that image with the body of a man and a woman, and the prospect of pleasure. Do they change, like we do, between childhood and adulthood - with hair, and curves? What happens to the delightful little acorn Kate had seen on their younger boy cousins - does it grow, like a stallion's? Is that expected to somehow fit within her? What is this seed that a man has, and where is it kept? So many questions were rushing to Kate's mind - and Edwina had lent so far forward from her chair, that Kate wondered if she would fall off.

"A man can find his pleasure with almost any woman - and they say that wicked women find their pleasure, too, like a man - in the arms of any who will satisfy," Mary continued, with a slight shudder, "but for some men, it matters not whether their wife has any pleasure at all - indeed, for some others, ensuring that their wife does not have pleasure is their entire aim."

"What?" Edwina interjected, "how would that ... what type of gentleman would...?"

Mary closed her eyes, and sighed. "Oh my darling girls. What happens between a man and a woman, the marital act, for some may be more about power and control than it is about pleasure - and about ensuring that it is the man with the power, with control over his wife. It should not be this way, and between a husband and wife who love and respect each other, then it would not be. Remember, they are stronger than us, taller and heavier - they hold all of our money, and we are indebted to them for a living - but a true gentleman like your Father respected this. Today, seeing Lord Bridgerton with Kate ..." Mary stood and began to pace again, trying to frame her words carefully. "Kate, please tell me - completely and honestly, with no shame - what happened in the garden?"

Kate exhaled deeply, and tried to explain. They had been talking, when a bee flew near them - Kate had panicked, and it had stung her. Kate tried to describe the frenzy that overtook Anthony, to Mary's increasing horror. Certainly, Anthony had grabbed her, roughly, pulled at her dress and told her to shut up. But what a contrast this demeanor had been, to his previous behaviour? He had been as if possessed - not himself at all. Kate repeated what Anthony had said, about his father's death, and his genuine belief that the venom would be deadly, as some level of explanation, yet Mary was not convinced. 

"You asked him to stop, and he continued, is that right? Until you pushed him off you, violently?"

Kate felt trapped by Mary's words, and shook her head in disbelief and frustration. Anthony wasn't like that! Or was he? He had loomed over Kate in his study, at the musicale, intentionally intimidating - it had only been Kate's quick wits that had got her out of that room with her virtue and reputation intact. Yet last night, in the library, he had been so nice - so gentle and compassionate. He had done everything for her. Yesterday, in the garden - his gentle teasing, his slow and seductive manner, and that searing kiss on the inside of her wrist. Mary was of course ignorant of all that - and Kate had no intention of telling her - so how to convince Mary that today's behaviour was the exception, for an exceptional circumstance, rather than the norm? How could she know his true self - but ultimately, did it matter? Mary's mind was quite settled on his character, and Kate was under no illusions that Anthony would ever desire her - and yet why did it feel so desperately sad, to think that she may never know?

Mary patted her hand gently. "I am just glad we found you when we did, Kate. Hopefully, we can avoid any further scandal - although you must know girls that it is not yet guaranteed. We must pray that the Bridgertons - and Mrs Featherington - do their best to keep the details of this matter private, and Whistledown never comments." 

"And if there is talk, Mary? What happens then?" Edwina asked, also reaching out to hold Kate's hand.

"Then I will marry him, if he will have me," Kate said boldly. "And I will make the best of it." 

\-------------

"Mary doesn't know this, but I saw him last night, in the library," Kate whispered briskly, as soon as Mary had left the room to get changed for dinner, to Edwina's great shock. "No, of course he didn't kiss me - it was all perfectly innocent," Kate added, before the inevitable question from her younger sister. "We talked. You know I can't sleep during storms. He was very nice, and ..."

"I knew you liked him!" Edwina triumphed, interrupting. 

"... he was so nice that before that dratted bee I gave him my permission." Kate concluded. "Permission to court you."

Edwina sat back in her chair with a groan. "You are impossible."

"It is all impossible," Kate continued, "because now a ridiculous bee sting and his disproportionate response has ruined it all. I'm so sorry."

"As I've told you before, it's not me he likes, Kate." Edwina moved to sit on the bed and lent forward to stroke her sister's hair, kissing her on the forehead. "Why can't you see that? It's obvious to me that he is smitten. I do not know why no one else has seen it. He's doing the very minimum to court me because that is what society expects- and perhaps his family, too. But ... after today, after what Mother said ... "

A faint blush coloured Kate's cheeks, and while she tried to look away, Edwina knew instantly that their mother's doubts were unfounded. While Kate had done her best to prevent society from forcing Lord Bridgerton's hand, perhaps a hasty marriage would not be such a hardship after all.

"I will pray for indiscretion then," Edwina wickedly concluded, trying to keep a straight face as she left the room. "And I'll have a tray sent up for our darling invalid, and I'll expect full and further details later this evening - unless you're in the library, of course."

"Get out of here," Kate threatened, reaching for a pillow to throw, but Edwina had already skipped out the door.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't look to the Regency era for relationship or sex advice, folks. Perhaps it goes without saying, but I do not condone Mary's comments on a woman's virtue etc.


End file.
